"Creme (2005) notes that [when we ask teaching students to write a reflective journal] we require more than a personal voice: we ask our students to open themselves up in the process of writing on very personal experiences, which means being honest and authentic in what they write. This involves taking a risk in the content they write" (Pavlovich 2007:285). This blog is a candid reflection on my experiences as a trainee teacher, to only include good experiences would not be truly reflective or representative of my experience.

Tag Archives: learning theories

In my spare time… I said that without laughing or asking myself “What’s that?”…I’m taking a couple of EdX courses.

Like Coursera these are free online courses designed and delivered by universities around the world. Successful completion of courses results in awards and certificates and increasingly such courses are seen as being real examples of continuing personal and professional development for individuals to include on CV’s and online profiles.

I’ve taken many online courses in the past and most recently have been following a course on the situation in the Middle East. Students talk about these things and ask questions even if it isn’t within your role to teach them and I don’t know about anyone else but I like to be able to respond and know that my response is accurate or at least historically correct.

This week I also started a course which looks to be very interesting already, the clue is in the title of this post, it’s Design and Development of Educational Technology developed and delivered by the prestigious American university MIT.

It looks at educational theories, mainly constructivism and constructionism and links them to the development of technology for educational use.

If like me you are keen to develop yourself as a technologically savvy teacher or if you want to delve deeper into these learning theories as part of your PGCE this could be a good one for you. Also if you are studying a masters in education either as part of a real class or through distance learning there are ideas which may help you to develop your own academic thought and opportunities to discuss ideas and concepts with people involved and interested in education technology from around the world, at all levels of knowledge with wide and varied experience. It’s all good stuff and comes free.
Just follow THIS LINK TO EDX and see all of the courses on offer and also check out Coursera here too, they have lots of courses which run in the same way on their site.

I’ve started a Pinterest specifically for items related to teaching and to my specialist subject. The first one I’ve begun to populate is a board for Learning Theories. Check it out by simply clicking on the Pinterest icon at the top of the blog on the right side. Keep up to date by clicking on the Follow button when you get to the Pinterest board, it will be updated regularly.